Portland, police union declare impasse in negotiations over body cameras

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — Portland is increasingly infamous for being the last large city in the U.S. where police do not wear body cameras. Efforts to deploy them have dragged on for years, and a fresh setback emerged Tuesday when the city announced an impasse in bargaining with the police union over the body cams.

The city and the Portland Police Association have been bargaining for months over contract language that would set out policies for the body-worn camera program, and the City Council issued a joint statement Tuesday declaring that the process has deadlocked.

The city and the union jointly declared the impasse on Feb. 10 and notified the state Employment Relations Board, according to a news release from the city.

The declaration means that the parties each have one week to submit any tentative agreements that have been reached over parts of the body cam policy, as well as their “final offer” proposals for the parts of the policy that are still in dispute. Those documents will be released publicly Friday, the city said.

The city’s statement did not mention what policy areas are still in dispute, but one previously reported point of contention is whether officers would be able to view their body cam footage before writing reports. The union wants them to be able to, but the city — and the U.S. Department of Justice — do not.

The declaration of an impasse means that mediation efforts have already failed and a state arbitrator will step in to resolve the dispute, according to the Oregon Employment Relations Board’s website.

Portland’s would-be body cam program dates back to 2014, when a federal judge urged the city to deploy them for officers. Development hit some other setbacks, stretching the process out to 2020, and then budget havoc during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed things back further.

The city finally got the funding together and reached a contract with the Axon company for a pilot program last year, and has been working to find a contractor for a full-scale rollout.